Riders Thanked

October 6, 2012

I am about a month late writing this but this is the first chance I've had to sit down and write this letter.

I want to send out a HUGE THANK YOU to the Martins Ferry School Administration, Carol Burda (Ticket Manager), Kim Appolloni (Athletic Director), and anyone else who may be involved with the all season parental pass for home games for the 2012-2013 school year that I received the first week of September.

It's very much appreciated and may go a long way to keeping me sane.

For the last 11 years, I have suffered from Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, Factor V Leiden Deficiency as well as drug-induced Lupus. What a mouthful, right? With the combination of these ailments, I have been unable to work for the last four, almost five years. There isn't much hope for me recovering from these illnesses any time soon, at least not according to my doctor.

To tell you that it's been unbearable would be a bit of an understatement. Anyway, in the beginning, the only thing to give me solace was my hobby of photography. I started taking photos at my church, covering different events throughout the year, including the American Heritage girls. The friendships I made with the young people of my church lead to my taking photos of them at community sporting events. Since I was attending these events already, it was not a huge undertaking for me to take these photos. As I took the kids photos, I decided to take photos for some of the other kids (non church kids) so that they could have the photographic memories from these events as well.

With the expansion of social media, I have been able to share these memories with not only the kids but their parents as well.

Being able to attend these games and take photos for the people of my community has given me a sense of purpose. Believe me, when you go from knowing exactly what you want to do with your life and have set yourself on the path to accomplish that goal to not knowing whether or not you were going to wake up the next morning or where your life is going, you kind of lose what your purpose in life is. So, by being given this pass, those who made it possible gave me back some direction in my life. I don't know what tomorrow brings, but, I wanted to let the community know what a wonderful thing these people have done for my life. Thank you all so much!